The word landscape and also landscape painting originates from the Dutch word landschap. It was in the 16th Century that the word became associated with a genre of painting that described a vista or view of nature. In Landschap my aim is to investigate views of the landscape by using personal photographic images that are sandcarved and etched into blown glass forms.
The images are from photographs taken on past travels around Europe and more recently here in Australia. During my European travels I studied at the Bornholm Glas and Keramikskolen in Denmark and also worked for various glass artists in Denmark, Sweden and the United Kingdom. It is during this time I learnt much about Scandinavian glass design and Swedish mould blowing techniques and took many photos of the various landscapes that I was fortunate to visit.
The photos are a source of inspiration for colours and texture they suggest various times of day and the changing of the seasons from the different hemispheres. By using the inner and outer surfaces of the glass I explore these colours and integrate transparent qualities of glass to transmit light and to cast shadows. The forms are inspired by the Scandinavian appreciation for the organic and my own understanding of nature’s shapes. The Landscape Bottles as forms are suggestive of both mountains and valleys, and when displayed in multiples enable me to create a glass canvas to explore the landscape.
My aim as an artist is to merge the personal images taken as souvenirs from various landscapes in Australia and abroad with stylized glass forms. Creating a kaleidoscope of glass visions that draws on traces of thought and segments of information becoming a photo album of inspiration of real and imagined landscapes.
Holly Grace 2008
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